Right, well I had virtually no idea what I was getting into when I sat down to watch the 2020 movie “Monster Problems” (aka “Love and Monsters”). But I must admit that I was genuinely interested in the movie given the presentation of the poster.

And now that I have seen the movie, I must just say: wow!

“Monster Problems” was definitely a wonderful surprise of an entertaining and enjoyable movie. It turned out to be one of the more memorable and entertaining of movies that I have seen in 2020 – and I watch a lot of movies.

The storyline told in “Monster Problems” was pretty straight forward, but it was at the same time a very interesting storyline that definitely appealed to me in many ways, especially since I have always enjoyed a good creature feature. And with the sheer size of the creatures in “Monster Problems”, then I was in for quite the treat.

Sure, you can say that the main plot was somewhat sappy and a bit on the simplistic side, perhaps appealing more to a younger romantically hazed audience. But the combination of the sappy romance, mixed with the action, suspense and monstrous creatures actually made for quite an enjoyable cocktail.

Visually then I was without a doubt impressed with how “Monster Problems” turned out. The creature designs were just spectacular and they looked very realistic in the way they moved, behaved and appeared. So the CGI team definitely delivered some nice eye candy with this movie.

The acting in the movie was good, and was definitely impressed with the performance of lead actor Dylan O’Brien. I was not familiar with him, but he was really great in this movie. I think it was a shame that Jessica Henwick and Michael Rooker weren’t given more screen time, because they brought a lot of good things to the movie with their performances and their characters. And the dog Dodge (playing Boy), well he was just spectacular, what a well-trained dog, and it had such great on-camera presence.

I can warmly recommend that you take the time and effort to sit down and watch “Monster Problems”, because this movie was great. I was genuinely surprised and entertained with what writers Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson managed to deliver.

My rating of “Monster Problems” is a sure eight out of ten stars. This movie deserves a sequel, no question about it.

Review by paul_haakonsen